Texas Tech's first student regent, Chad Greenfield, tendered his resignation Tuesday to the Texas Governor's Office and the Tech Board of Regents.
Greenfield, a graduate student from Monahans, resigned after the Governor's Office was informed about his recent act of plagiarism in The Daily Toreador.
Greenfield admitted to plagiarizing several paragraphs in his Sept. 25 column titled "Random-ness," which resulted in his dismissal by The DT editorial board Sept. 28.
During his visit to Lubbock on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told The DT he believes Greenfield handled the situation properly by tendering his resignation.
"This is an unfortunate situation for Chad," Perry said. "Sometimes we all make mistakes in life, and he realizes he made one."
With the student regent position at Tech now vacant, Perry said he is not certain whether a replacement will be named before February, the month Greenfield's term was scheduled to end. Each student regent is appointed to serve a one-year term as a nonvoting member of the Board of Regents.
"I don't know if there would be any major decisions that the board would be making between now and February," Perry said. "Obviously we wouldn't just pick a name out of a hat and put it in there."
Perry said his office did not make an official request for Greenfield to resign, and the decision was made voluntarily by Greenfield.
"I talked to Ken Anderson who's our appointment secretary," he said. "It is my understanding that Chad offered his resignation to Mr. Anderson. That was his decision."
Kathy Walt, Perry's press secretary, said the Governor's Office had not made any inquiry into the Greenfield case until KCBD-TV brought the issue to their attention. Monday the station contacted the Governor's Office about the plagiarism case.
"Chad Greenfield's offer to tender his resignation made no further investigation necessary," Walt said. "Our director of governor appointments contacted Greenfield about the allegations to see if they were true, and Greenfield then offered to resign."
Greenfield's letter of resignation to the Governor's Office stated he did not want any controversy surrounding his personal life "to reflect negatively on the university."
He also wrote it saddens him "that an honest mistake has been turned into political capital" resulting in his resignation.
When contacted Tuesday evening by The DT, Greenfield said he did not want to comment further on the issue, but he wants students to know any questions they might have can be directed to him personally.
"If people want to know something, they can just contact me," he said. "I think it's unfortunate that it all came to this. I've been open and honest about this the whole time."
On Sept. 28 Opinions Editor Jeremy Glidewell sent Greenfield an e-mail offering him the opportunity to address Tech students and apologize in writing to the Tech community. In media interviews given by Greenfield Tuesday evening, he disputed this fact.
In addition to his former position as student regent, Greenfield serves as a staff assistant to Congressman Randy Neugebauer. Though Neugebauer could not be reached for comment and had no official statement on the issue, his press secretary, Josh Nolan, said Neugebauer views this as an issue between the university, the Board of Regents and the Governor's Office.
"Chad is a fantastic employee who has served the people of the 19th District well," Nolan said.
Ryan Worley, president of the Student Government Association, said he believes the situation is unfortunate.
"I think Chad is a great guy, and I don't think it speaks negatively of him," Worley said. "I think, unfortunately or fortunately, because of the positions we hold there's bigger consequences, not only for Chad, but the position of student regent."
Worley said he wants Tech students and Texas Tech Univeristy Health Sciences Center students to know their voices will be heard on the Board of Regents, even without the student regent seat being filled immediately.
"I think in the case of students, input from both presidents of both universities is still very influential," he said. "The students will still have a presence at the regents' meetings."
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